Chapter Text
It’s summer.
Prompto almost forgets that, because he wakes up to his alarm ringing. He still likes to keep an alarm on, though not for as early as he’d need for a typical school day, so he can go on his morning runs. He learned the hard way that it’s a lot better to do it earlier in the day, while it’s still somewhat cool outside. He only slept in a tank and shorts, so he just throws on a jacket and slips into his shoes before leaving. With the path that he takes, he usually spends around an hour or more just running. He starts within the neighborhood, but ends up on a trail near a park.
Prompto is on his way back to his house around eleven, and he gets a random text from Noct to meet him at the arcade. As someone who’s very close to Noct, it’s surprising. He’s pretty sure Noctis sleeps in until noon, at least. But he gets excited, nonetheless. It takes him less time than usual to get back home.
When he walks in the house, he finds his dad finally awake and sitting in the kitchen.
“Hey.” He says, walking up the stairs.
“If you come back down quick enough, you could eat your breakfast while it’s still hot.” Cor yells after him.
He takes the quickest shower that he’s probably ever taken in his life, and changes as fast as he can without falling over. By the time he makes it to the kitchen, his dad is already rinsing off his own plate. He still ends up needing to reheat the food.
“You know you’re almost as bad as Noct with how late you sleep in.”
“Yeah, well, I work late hours, Prom. And, I’m old. You should consider yourself lucky that I even bother to make you food in the morning.”
The microwave beeps, and he takes his omelette to the table with him, sitting in front of his dad.
“It’s nice that you have an excuse at least.”
He takes a bite when his dad says, “You talk about him a lot, don’t you?”
He doesn’t quite breath and swallow his food at the right time, and ends up choking for a second. “...What? I mean, yeah, I guess so.”
“Is he your boyfriend or something?”
Prom is glad he waited to try eating again. But, now his heart is beating a little too fast, and he’s pretty sure his face is getting pink. He also forgot that his dad knows he’s bisexual.
He laughs, nervously. “Haha, you’re funny, dad. Like the Prince of Lucis would want to date a commoner…”
It kind of hurts. He does like Noct. Sometimes he wonders if Noct can even date anyone or marry anyone that isn’t someone his father picked out for him, but then he catches himself. He isn’t even his soulmate. Sometimes he forgets that people have those, because he’d rather not have anything to do with them.
“You never know. You two are pretty close.”
“Okay, first of all, I never even said that I like him...like that.”
Cor gets up from his chair, and puts a hand on Prompto’s shoulder. “I’m your dad, Prom. You don’t need to actually tell me for me to know these things.”
He heads to the living room, leaving Prompto with a slightly pink face, still trying to eat in the kitchen.
“Anywaaay, can you drop me off at the arcade?”
“Yeah, I’ll take you to see your boyfriend.” He teases.
“I hate you.”
Noctis is already at the arcade when Prompto texts him, telling him that he’s here. He walks through the front, back outside, to look for him. He comes out just in time to find him getting out of his dad’s car near the entrance. Prom turns back to tell his dad something before he closes the door and he drives off. He quickly sees Noct, and runs over to him.
“Hey, I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.” Prom says.
“Yeah, it’s been a few weeks, hasn’t it?”
Noct leads him into the arcade as they talk.
“You mind explaining why I got a text from you during actual morning hours? You’re usually still dead then, unless you have royal shit to do.”
They pass by a set of Mario Kart machines, where a lot of teens are crowding around the people actually playing. Prom instinctively presses closer to Noctis, so they can pass by. Noct tries to ignore it, but his heart skips a beat anyway.
“For the past few weeks I’ve had a bunch of ‘royal shit’ to do, actually. Today I got a break, but then Ignis came to wake me up. He doesn’t want me ruining my sleep schedule, because I’m gonna be busy for the rest of the week again.”
“That sucks. Wait, can I play pinball? Sorry…”
Noct hands him some tokens. “It’s cool.”
His fingers burn where Prom’s touches him to pick up the tokens. He gets a random thought about how nice it would be to hold Prom’s hand, but he quickly pushes it to the back of his brain. He watches Prompto as he begins to play.
“So, does that mean I’m not gonna see you for a while, again?” He says, almost sadly.
The way he says it makes Noct feel weirdly good. Prompto misses him. That means he likes spending time with him.
“Well, I guess. We’re going to Altissia for like a week and a half. Technically, I don’t need to go, but my dad wants me to.”
“Are you gonna see Luna?”
“Maybe. It would be nice, so I wouldn’t have to be bored.”
Suddenly, the game ends, but he ends up winning a lot of tickets, like usual. Prom goes to collect them.
Noct remembers he wanted to ask him something. “Hey, Pr-”
Someone yelling behind them interrupts Noct. They turn around to find two girls reaching for the same game. Noct assumes it was one of the girls standing next to them that screamed in shock. Both of them had their hands on the same joystick, inevitably making their hands touch. Bright blue glowed in a specific shape on one of the girls hands, while the other has the same glowing mark peeking below her pants, on her ankle.
They both found their soulmate.
The sight makes Prom sick to his stomach. Suddenly, Prompto grabs Noct’s arm and starts walking with him to the other side of the arcade.
“Prom? Are you okay?”
He looks at him with the same cheery face. “Yeah, I just remembered I wanna challenge you to air hockey.”
They spend another hour in the arcade, playing random games, before Noct has to go home. They start walking to the park, where it’s a lot easier to get picked up.
“How’s your break been so far? Aside from your princely duties, I mean.”
“It’s been okay, I guess. There’s no stress to deal with about school. No homework, no tests, or anything like that. It’d be better if I wasn’t so busy, though.”
“So you could sleep all day?”
"Yeah .”
They get to the center of the park, where the fountain is. Noctis feels his phone vibrate, and, looking around, he finds Ignis parked nearby.
“I have to go. Do you need a ride?”
Prompto pulls out his phone. “No, I think my dad’s picking me up.”
“Are you sure you’re okay with waiting alone?”
“I’m good, Noct.”
“Alright.”
He starts to walk away, but then he realizes he never got to ask Prompto that one thing.
“Wait, I almost forgot…
I think we’re coming back next friday, so my dad’s gonna finally let me have a vacation, and he’s letting me go to our lake house.” Noct’s nose wrinkles at his own statement; He hates sounding like a snobby, rich kid. “Obviously Gladio and Specs are coming with me, but I’d like it if you came, too.”
Prompto ignores it when he feels his heart skip a beat.
“Um, yeah, sure.”
“You will?”
“Yeah. I mean, if I don’t take the chance now, then I’ll probably never see a beautiful lake house in my entire life, right?” He jokes.
“Cool. I’ll probably text you later about it.” He ruffles Prompto’s hair, purposefully messing it up. “See ya’.”
“Dammit, Noct…!”
Noctis laughs, sprinting to the Regalia.
Prompto watches Noct run away with a stupid smile on his face. It makes him feel conflicted when Noct does that. It seems endearing, while at the same time he hates him for doing it. Not just because he ruins his hair, but it also makes his stomach flutter, which gives him a bittersweet feeling. He runs his own fingers through his hair in an attempt to fix it, almost missing Noct’s fingers in his hair.
He can’t help but feel like this trip is going to be very difficult for him.